HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 243 



years, and to whom soils and climate and hybridizing are familiar 

 subjects. The discovery of a new variety, or the adaptation of 

 particular varieties to our Minnesota climate and soil, has been to 

 them the gratification of ambition and the result of careful investi- 

 gation. I should remain silent were it not for the conviction I 

 have, that nothing affords so much pleasure to the mind, as the 

 cultivation of the soil; whether it be to the man of many acres who 

 makes it a life work, or to the amateur with his few rods of earth. 

 As a life work, or as a mere recreation, the study of seed sowing 

 and plant growing is always interesting. It is particularly, so to 

 the business and professional man, and it affords a far greater de- 

 gree of rest and enjoyment than anything outside his profession, 

 to say nothing of the renewed health, both to body and mind, 

 which it gives. Call it a "hobby" or a cranky notion, or call it 

 what you please, the man who has never sowed seeds or cultivated 

 a pla.it is to be pitied. Every hard working business or profes- 

 sional man should have a "hobby" outside of his regular routine 

 work, and to my mind no field is more worthy of his recreation 

 than horticulture, no field has more unexplored regions or greater 

 possibilities, and in none can the best minds and the most thor- 

 ough investigation and study be more pleasantly and profitably 

 employed. Nothing outside of revelation can bring him nearer to 

 the giver of all life or show him more of the providences of the 

 great creator. 



By the programme I see I am to speak of "growing hollyhocks", 

 although I had hoped my subject was to be of a somewhat wider 

 range, and include hardy flowers in general, rather than holly- 

 hocks alone. If a moments digression may be allowed, I would 

 like to insert a word in favor of hardy plants and biennials in our 

 grounds and gardens. It has occurred to me every summer 

 while taking in the beauties of massed beds of geraniums and 

 coleus which decorate so many homes, and while viewing the rich 

 collections of asters, balsams, stocks, sweet peas, and many other 

 annuals, — in favor of which favorites no praise can be to great — 

 that the more hardy plants were being overlooked and neglected. 

 While I would still cultivate the annuals and tender plants, and 

 regret that so many lawns and gardens have not even a single ger- 

 anium to gratify the eye, yet I would add to them the beauty which 

 comes from the hollyhock, the Clematis, the Iris, the larkspur, the 

 Canterbury-bell, the Lilium auratum, the sweet William and the 

 perennial Phlox, — nor would I overlook the gladioli, the dahlia and 

 the Amaryllis atamasco or fairy lilly, the Canna and the Caladium 

 with their bulbs and tubers, so easily removed and kept through 

 the winter in our cellars, as to make them for all practical purposes, 

 perennials. The perennials and biennials, if wisely selected, will 

 afford a series of bloom from the early spring to the time of hard 

 frost, — and they have a vigor and beauty of coloring which cannot 

 be surpassed Whether as single plants, or scattered in the border, 

 or massed, they are always robust and striking. Blue is a rare 

 color among the annuals and where can you get an intenser blue 

 than that of the larkspur, or a prettier shade of blue than is found 



